Saturday, October 31, 2009

I seem to be accumulating unfinished projects again, most of which I don't have listed on my sidebar here.

I have my star afghan, a new baby hat, a 5 hour baby sweater, a pair of socks for a Christmas present and yet another lace shawl.

On Ravelry I appear to have even more unfinished projects, but that's only because I never listed them as finished, nor took a action photo. Oops.

With Marcus taking up more and more time it appears that knitting time - which used to be 24 hours a day if I felt like it - is becoming increasingly endangered, something I'm quite worried about. Maybe once I catch up on a bit of sleep (HA!) I can stay up late and knit.

All I need are some more episodes of "Midsomer Murder" to watch as I go!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

First, I'd like to say thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and lovely comments* about my last post. You're right - I will have some lovely memories of my Nana to pass along to Marcus, and I can look back and smile as well.

I decided that a small light jacket was needed, so I started on the 5 Hour Baby Sweater (Boy version) using my varigated Patonyle that I have so much of. I worked through the yoke and the sleeves and had just started the main part when Marcus needed a feed. So I fed him and sat him up to burp him, my knitting next to me on the floor.

Projectile vomit. Over my right arm, over the floor and landing right in the middle of one of my balls of Patonyle. A huge amount.

I'm knitting a hat now.

* Except you, Sam. I know just what you were thinking when you mentioned Trixie Belden...

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The last time I posted I spent part of the morning on the phone to my Nana, Lena (Selena). The day after I had Marcus, Nana was admitted to hospital with pneumonia. Not content with such a serious illness at age 91, she decided to move in on more of my son's limelight by having four angina attacks and a heart attack while I was still in hospital myself. I decided a phone call regarding this outright Jonesing of my son's attention was required...

My Nana is my mum's mum, and I spent a fortnight with her and my Pa during the summer holidays when I was a child. I suspect my parents decided a small child was too much on top of three teenage girls for a whole holiday season. It may come as a surprise to anyone who knows me now, but I was a very quiet child. Hand me a book and leave me alone, and that's exactly what my Nana did. I built up a collection of Trixie Belden books that were the envy of all my friends over those summers, and when I wasn't re-reading them all (what are dungerees, anyway?) I was knitting.

My Nana loved knitting and she once won first prize for her handknitted socks at the Mirboo North Show, something she was very proud of. She had the patience of a saint with me, because when I was younger I didn't like to knit the last stitch of the row. Each time she'd knit the stitch and hand my work back to me to start the next row, all the while knowing I'd need her help in a few minutes. Like I said, a saint.

Sadly, we lost my Nana last weekend. We'd hoped she would last until my parents got back from their trip to Sydney on Wednesday, but it was not to be. She was sweet, kind, honest, funny and loyal. My biggest regret is that Marcus will never get to know the truly beautiful great-grandmother he very briefly had.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Who turned off spring? Seriously? Melbourne is firmly clutched in winter's icy grip yet again, and here we have two heaters switched on, one of them around the clock for Marcus. Drying cloth nappies isn't much fun around here either.

The first person to mention rainfall and farmers will be shot. I mean it.

In the meantime, the sudden cold snap has brought forth some knitting. Nothing exciting, sorry to say. Merely a 5 hour baby jacket, knitted in Patonyle (3 balls! A sock knitter is out there planning to kill me for them) for Marcus, just until the cold snap is over, and then to wear over the short sleeved outfits that everyone decided to buy him in anticipation of actual warm weather.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Thursday, October 08, 2009

First off, thank you all for your lovely comments and well-wishes, they really did make my day - Marcus has wriggled his way into our lives quite cunningly. Unsurprisingly, a new baby can put a cramp on your knitting time. So I'm crocheting instead.

I have 10 balls of Cleckheaton Vintage Hues that I'm crocheting into a floor rug for Marcus (I can say his name now without worrying about my dad finding out! Brilliant!) so he can just lie around and listen in while his dad plays "Guitar Hero World Tour". The drums appear to soothe him.

The pattern is the Baby Starghan and it's really easy once you get the hang of it. I'm planning to use up all 10 balls of my Vintage Hues so hopefully it'll be pretty huge at the end.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

This has been a pretty big project. It was started in Scotland, safely carried home to Australia, and promptly ignored.

Occasionally I'd pay some attention to it, work on some details, enjoy it, then push it to the back of the queue.

The last month, however, it has had my complete attention.

It was interrupting every thought, every project, every stash hoard, even my Royal Melbourne Show win! Thankfully, at 7:46pm last Wednesday, September 30th, it was finally, completely and utterly finished.

Meet Marcus William.

I can say without fear or favour of contradiction that this is the best work I have ever done. Thanks for listening to me while I worked on him.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

You all thought I'd never finish this blanket, didn't you? Well the joke's on you peoples!

It was started in March and technically finished in July. The blocking was my big problem. How do you kneel on a floor and pin for an hour when you're eight months pregnant? Re-pinning my Amelia Shawl for the Royal Melbourne Show taught me how - very very slowly and very very carefully. I rushed to pin that one out and got a blood nose for my trouble.

This time I used my parents lounge room, a few blankets and a lot of pins. My mum was amazed by just how many pins were required, but once she counted the points on the blanket, it all made sense.

Now to decide: do I use it for the Boitjie, or do I put it away and jealously guard it for the Show next year?